The Noodler Behind All This
Welcome. My name is Lori Sawaya and I am the principal Color Strategist™ of Color Strategies™. My passion and purpose of this blog is to motivate people beyond the notion of coloring just for the intent of aesthetics.
The mission is to build a strong foundation of innovative color fundamentals and change the way people think about how to color their homes, places of work, and communities - their world. Color Strategies™ is about Strategic Color Engineering™ for people based on psychology, light, art and science.
My color expertise is a result of my diverse color experience. This experience has evolved from over twenty years of work and study in the arts, metaphysical phenomenon, and earth sciences.
Color Strategies is the leader on the cutting edge of color - the New Age of Color™. A Color Strategist™ is sanctioned by their ability to provide innovative color solutions and structure new guidelines that are now required to color human environs in our ever-changing and dynamic world.
This Blog is for you. Design Professionals and DIYers, this is your color sanctuary. My intent is to bring you the information and inspiration you need to refine your gift of color. Everyone deserves to live well and live color to the fullest.
Let me know how I can help with color: Email Lori
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Thanks for being patient.
What Colors Can Your Dog See?
I was amazed to learn that Luke sees my favorite color, blue-green, as white!
So, we got to wondering what else Luke Skywalker Sawaya could do. Sure he has a catchy and befitting name due to his dark and light sides, but what abilities lie within those moniker-inspiring eyes. I had read many times before that dogs could not see in color, only achromatically meaning black, white, and gray. Knowing Luke, I didn't believe it and set out to find more information.
What I found was a study in which Dana K. Vaughan, Ph.D., Dept. of biology, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh vounteered her two Italian Greyhounds named Flip and Gypsy. "Source" below is a link to her paper entitled "How Dogs See Color". As a dog lover and total color geek, I found every word fascinating.
The results from the study tells us that dogs do see some colors: violet, indigo, blue, yellow and red. They are especially adept at differentiating between shades of violet, indigo, and blue. Who knew!! "The colors Green, Yellow, and Orange all look alike to dogs; but look different from Red and different from various Blues and Purples.""How Dogs See Color" advises us that in order "to maximize an object's visibility to a dog, we should strive to combine (1) moderate motion (when feasible); (2) maximal contrast (a dark and white pattern unlike that of the background scene); and (3) stand-out color (one that is identifiable by dogs and does not occur very often in the background scene). The best of all possible worlds for most background scenes would be boldly-patterned Bright Purple and White objects."
Source Link from PupLife Healthy Dog Supplies: How Dogs See Color
Color of the Month - Shocking Pink February
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Shocking Pink was made world famous by the Italian Elsa Schiaparelli 1890-1973. The story of how Shocking Pink was *invented* goes that one of Schiaparelli's clients, a heiress named Daisy Fellowes, owned a 17.27 ct pink diamond from Cartier called the Tête de Belier (translation Ram's Head). The diamond was inspiration for the color of the box of Schiaparelli's first perfume which she named "Shocking". Leonor Fini is credited with designing the packaging for the fragrance as well as the bottle design. The perfume bottle is the shape of a woman's torso widely believed to be based on Mae West's custom dress form. West was one of many movie stars for whom Elsa designed clothing. Her fragrance, Shocking, is available through the Schiaparelli website: http://www.schiaparelli.com/cannes2.htm More about the trail-blazing designer, Elsa Schiaparelli: http://www.amazon.com/Shocking-Art-Fashion-Elsa-Schiaparelli/dp/0300100663 |
WHAT EMOTIONS CAN SHOCKING PINK BRING TO A SPACE?
| 11 Ways Shocking Pink Feels Good |
When Shocking Pink Feels Bad |
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Bright Dynamic Exciting Fun Playful Youthful |
Cloying Feverish Juvenile Loud Vampish |
Color of the Month - January's Icy Blues
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Blue. Notorious for being the most favored color. Blue's fans seem to know no boundaries as they are from all age groups, both genders, and varied socioeconomic backgrounds. Apparently blue rules and for good reason. Blue skies are favored over gray ones. Oceans in a range of blues and turquoise are inviting, calming and are the unofficial international symbol for VACATION! Blue has a lot to say. Here are some of its most recognized emotions. |
| 11 Ways Blue Feels Good | When Blue Feels Bad |
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Calm Classic Fresh Modern Peaceful Playful Restful Retreat Serene Tranquil Youthful |
Bland Cold Depressing Devoid Empty Hard Heavy Oppressive Sharp Unappetizing Vapid |
Are you White-Knuckling "Inspiration Pieces"?
It's time for my Process of Coloring Series right here on Color Noodle
Step away from the inspiration pieces and *mood boards* and no one gets hurt
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We will be discussing what it means to:
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"Why can't I pick the right paint colors?"
Don't even know how many emails I have received over the years about this topic -- I lost count. In response to questions about how to successfully choose paint colors, I have typed the following paragraph eleventy million times:
"You have to define expectations, identify tolerances,
evaluate proportion of space, observe natural light,
inventory artificial light, and LASTLY consider
permanent, semi-permanent, and
transient elements that reside in the space."
My color point of view is more inclusive than most and I firmly believe that you don't HAVE to have an inspiration piece in order to properly fit a room with color.Logically, the question to pose to those white-knuckling the staid philosophies of color scheming and ye old inspiration piece is: If it works so darn well, then why are there so many people -- professional and DIY alike -- out there struggling hard and falling flat when it comes to choosing paint colors.
My tried and true mantra is as follows: before considering anything as the one piece of inspiration around which you intend to color and build an entire atmosphere, you need to at least define expectations and identify tolerances. Otherwise, you are floundering in a sea of commercialized and bastardized color concepts. Just because a piece of fabric has a colorway running along its selvage doesn't mean it's a good choice for what you're trying to achieve. Just because a _____________ (fill in the blank) has a *color scheme* doesn't mean it's a good one -- or the right one.
The notion that some arbitrary piece of inanimate "whatever" can be the key to coloring an environment in which humans have to function and live is a little short-sighted... pun intended.
Link to recent decorating forum post: Garden Web "How to Use a Paint Wheel" Post from 12/ 20/ 2008
Peanut Butter Slices
When peeled baby carrots hit the supermarkets, I thought they were the best thing since sliced bread. Peeling carrots is no fun and takes too long so the baby carrots are a reasonable convenience food in my book. But the PB slices might be crossing a line. I have lots to do but I'm not so busy that I can't dip a knife in a jar of PB and smear some across a slice o'bread! Is this what we've been reduced to, peanut butter slices? I'm sorry but this type of processing and packaging should be exclusive to cheese and cheese only.
Can you imagine in the dim morning light packing lunches and mixing up PB Slices and American Cheese Singles? (((shudder))) A ham and PB sandwich does not sound appetizing to me at all. However, something did catch my eye when I saw this new PB innovation....
... THE COLORS! Fabulous paint color inspiration! The PB slices could almost pass for paint chips. On behalf of paint store staff everywhere, allow me to list some of my favorite "peanut" inspired paint colors so you can leave your PB slices at home:
| Color Name | Color Number | Paint Brand |
| Peanut Butter | 2159-20 | Ben Moore |
| Peanut Brittle | 84B | ACE |
| Peanut Shell | 2162-40 | Ben Moore |
| Peanut Shell | 8262W | Pittsburgh Paints & Frazee |
| Peanut Shell | 2055 | Pratt & Lambert |
| Peanut Shell | 84D | ACE |
You can see virtual interpretations of the colors at My Perfect Color
What is Luminosity
Color is a wavelength. Wavelengths can be measured and therefore the luminosity of a color can be measured. The definition from dictionary.com says it more clearly than I could: "the brightness of a light source of a certain wavelength as it appears to the eye, measured as the ratio of luminous flux to radiant flux at that wavelength."
Luminosity of a color is about how LIGHT or DARK it literally is; how much light it keeps and how much it is able to emit or bounce back into the room. Notice on the graphic how the lightness of the black on the far left is markedly less than the lightness of the neutral gray on the opposite end. When it comes to paint colors, the measure of luminosity is available to you on paint chips or fandecks and it is call LRV. "L" = light or luminosity. See this article to better understand LRV and paint colors. LRV - What is Light Reflectance Value
The Three Parts of Color
What is Saturation
Saturation speaks to the part of color that we see and describe as bright or dull. If you want to dull a paint color, you decrease its saturation. If you think it's too muddy or dull, you want the saturation to be clearer or more pure -- closer to the color's root hue. Adjusting saturation means adding black, gray, or color complements to a paint color in order to decrease saturation which will dull it or "knock it back". Doing so moves the color farther away from its purest state of hue. The more black, gray, or complement you add to a color, the more neutralized the color becomes. See how the blue in the graphic is moved from a bright, vivid blue all the way down to a neutral gray.
The Three Parts of Color
What is Hue
HUE
Newton divided the visible spectrum into seven basic hues. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet - ROY G BIV makes it easy to remember. Colors that can be produced by a single wavelength, the pure spectral colors, are hues. There are more hues in the visible spectrum besides just these basic seven. In the book Optiks, it tells us why Newton chose to edit it down to only seven hues. The seven are based on a belief, derived from the ancient Greek sophists, that there was a connection between the hues, the musical notes, the known objects in the solar system, and the days of the week -- so that's why those basic seven hues are the ones that get the most spin.
The graphic below shows how a few extra wavelengths can get squeezed in to various charts depicting hue. Your basic color wheel has more than seven hues too as it will show: red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet, and red-violet.
The Three Parts of Color
Another Variation
Hue vs. Color
Did you know that the window for learning new words stays open throughout life, but the ability to learn a second language is greatest between birth and six years old? Source
Here's the bad news, since we're a lot older than six and if we are not already fluent in a second language, the odds are we're never going to be fluent in another language. The good news is your noodle keeps the window for learning new words open. So let's get noodlin' on some common color words! Source
One of the biggest challenges as a consumer of color is getting the color you want! The problem is the language of color theory is confusing and not too many people use color terms correctly. A more clearly defined color vocabulary will help you build your color expertise and refine that knack for color you already have.
HUE vs. COLOR
The words "hue" and "color" do not mean the same thing, they are not synonyms. Hue is not interchangeable for the word color and vice versa. Hue is actually just one part of color. Color has three basic components, Hue, Saturation and Luminosity also known as HSL. See graphic below.
The Three Parts of Color
